Tesla kicked off its 2022 AI Day by showing off a demo of its Optimus robot. The Optimus bot was able to walk out on stage on its own, wave to the crowd and even ‘raise the roof’ to music.
Optimus was shown lifting boxes, working in a factory doing some light work and even watering plants in the office.
What we saw walking out on stage was the Optimus Development Platform, codenamed “Bumble-Cee,” which was completed in February 2022.
Here’s a screenshot of the Optimus robot prototype lifting a box, demonstrating what would be possible with this humanoid robot.
Elon Musk said Optimus at scale would be less than $20,000 USD, and thanked the team for burning the “3am oil” to get this demo to fruition. Tesla also shared some pictures on its website showing off its latest Optimus bot as it stands today, all dressed up. This particular robot wasn’t able to walk on stage but will in a few weeks, said Musk.
This version also was built with all Tesla-made parts such as actuators, whereas the first demo was built using off-the-shelf parts. Tesla says the vision here is to make the Optimus robot so that it can be manufactured at scale, cost less than $20,000 USD and expect to be delivered in 3-5 years.
Power consumption is 100W at sitting and 500W during brisk walking, while weighing in at 73 kg (160 lbs). The robot will have 200+ degrees of body freedom and its hands will have 11 degrees of freedom and the robot will have 28 structural actuators.
Optimus will have an adaptive grasp with its hands and be able to carry a 20-pound bag, plus use tools and have a precision grip for small parts.
Tesla says it is leveraging its vehicle and energy products into Optimus, as the latter will have a 2.3 kWh battery pack, while the Bot brain will use 1x Tesla SOC, Wi-Fi, LTE, audio, security and safety. It will process like the human brain will, while its design, such as its knee joints are based on human design.
